To Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt’s long list of profound mistakes, add this: Security guards ejected reporters trying to cover his speech on water contamination. It’s the latest instance of the hostility he’s injecting into a key government agency that he’s busy dismantling.

Reporters from the Associated Press, CNN and the environmental service E&E News were barred from a summit on harmful water contaminants where Pruitt was due to speak. Sorry, there’s no room, and you weren’t invited, the journalists were told. When the AP reporter asked to speak to an EPA official, she was grabbed and escorted out of the building.

Pruitt staffers eventually thought better of the goonish behavior and allowed the news media back in. Pruitt told the audience of 200 that ridding water of dangerous substances is a “national priority.” But the heavy-handed treatment deserves a special place in the collection of paranoia-laden actions by the agency head. Not only is he openly hostile to the agency’s mission, he doesn’t want to be watched or held accountable.

While the ejections were a clear mistake, they aren’t surprising. Pruitt is matching the White House’s own attitude on environmental rules. The administration is dead set on weakening pollution standards and erasing any thought of climate change science. That outlook has led to a wave of departures by staffers who know their work isn’t supported.

Evading press coverage is part of the game plan and the ejections deserve the condemnation. Pruitt wants to do his wrecking ball work away from the public. That can’t be allowed to happen.

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